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Friday after work we drove to the White Mountains with a bunch of our friends for a weekend of camping and hiking (and biking for Nick). My friends were kind enough to accompany me on my next 4,000 footer – Mount Liberty in Franconia Notch. We woke up on Saturday, made a quick oats breakfast and headed straight over to the mountain. At 4,459 ft and rated strenuous, I knew this hike was not going to be easy. I didnt not know that I was totally going to bonk like half way up and feel like I couldn’t move my body up the mountain. It was crazy, but I made it to the top, eventually.

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Wednesday morning we drove from our hotel in Luquillo to Fajardo and caught the 9:30 am passenger ferry to Vieques – a small island off the east coast of Puerto Rico. About an hour and a half later we landed on Vieques to lots of sunshine, crystal blue water and white sandy beaches. We grabbed a public car (taxi) to Esperanza on the other side of the island, and checked into our hotel. Not having any plans for the afternoon, we got into our swim suits and wandered down to the city for some lunch.

Esperanza seems kinda touristy to me. The city is basically comprised of a row of pretty cheesy restaurants/bars across from a malecon (“boardwalk”, but basically just an elevated sidewalk along the ocean). After lunch we walked down to the public swimming beach, which was so pretty.

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After reading a few bucket lists on some blogs I frequent, I decided to make my own. My list leans towards the whimsy side (no 5 year plan here!) – but life is about having really great stories to tell. It’s also a work in progress (I would like to get to 100, and there will probably be edits along the way). However, I thought I’d post it here, so I can cross things off as they are completed.

1. Take a week long sailing trip, preferably to an island
2. Hike all 48 4,000+ footers in the White Mountains (completed: Mt. Moosilauke, Lafayette)
3. Own a victorian house
4. Ride an ostrich
5. Learn to speak French properly
6. Go on a big family vacation
7. Have a chicken in my backyard
8. Own my own business
9. Spend Christmas vacation in a cabin in Vermont
10. Spend an afternoon in a row boat on a lake with food and wine
11. Milk a cow
12. Learn how to french braid hair
13. Write in a 5 year diary every day, for 5 years
14. Start a food fight
15. Hold a croquet tournament
16. Learn how to crochet the tablecloths my grandma makes
17. Make pickles
18. Rent a convertible and drive down the Pacific Coast Highway
19. Learn to identify edible mushrooms in the wild
20. Make a proper macaron from scratch
21. Start a collection
22. Complete a 60 day yoga challenge
23. Finish an entire novel in one day
24. Play the slots in Vegas
25. Roast chestnuts over an open fire
26. Make cheese from scratch
27. Sleep in a castle
28. Take a holiday with just my sister
29. Visit all the modern art museums in Manhattan + Brooklyn
30. Ride in a gondola in Venice
31. Pay for someone’s dinner, anonymously
32. Throw a surprise birthday party for someone
33. Make a pinata by hand
34. Take a haunted hayride on Halloween
35. Bob for apples
36. Start (and finish) a 365 photo project
37. Build a tree house
38. Spend the night on a beach
39. Grow a giant pumpkin
40. Decide on Monday to take a fabulous vacation on Friday to somewhere I’ve never been…and go.
41. Ride a camel in the desert
42. Set foot in all 50 states
43. Swim in a bio-luminescent bay (5/5/10)
44. Grow a fruit tree in my backyard (have a backyard)
45. Ride on a parade float
46. Have a big wedding anniversary party
47. Live in another country for a year (at least)
48. Go somewhere in a horse-drawn sled
49. Visit the Heimburg castle in Germany, try to get inside
50. Take a hot air balloon ride
51. Go whale watching
52. Make my mom’s erupting volcano cake
53. Get a job where I have my own secretary
54. Swim in a fountain
55. Ride a donkey down (or up?) the Grand Canyon
56. Build a snowman
57. Organize a serious snowball fight, with teams
58. Go on vacation for an entire month
59. See the northern lights
60. Dive/snorkel with a whale shark
61. Hug a manatee underwater
62. Be a Big Sister to someone
63. Have afternoon tea at the Ritz in London
64. Swim in Crater Lake (and go on the creepy floating island)
65. Go back to Iceland and camp in the highlands, Western Fyords and see the puffins
66. Ski the Alps
67. Learn to pipe pastry, frosting, etc really, really well, like near professional
68. Fly in a helicopter
69. Travel on a luxury overnight train
70. Mud wrestle someone (preferably someone i can beat!)
71. Write my husband and my initials in a heart, in wet cement, in every city we live in (cambridge, gainesville)
72. Stay up all night watching a meteor shower
73. Sew a clothing item that is nice enough to wear outside the house
74. Hike the Appalachian Trail (the whole thing)
75. Have a pin up girl style photograph taken of myself
76. Visit the 10 best waterfalls in the world: Lower Falls (Yellowstone), Sutherland Falls (New Zealand), Dettifoss (Iceland), Gulfoss (Iceland), Kaieteur Falls (Guyana), Yosemite Falls (Yosemite NP), Angel Falls (Venezuela), Niagra Falls, Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe), Iguazu Falls (Brazil)
77. Visit all the National Parks in America (completed: Acadia, Carlsbad Caverns, Crater Lake, Death Valley, Everglades, Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains, Redwood, Yosemite)
78. Ride a horse at a gallop
79. Find a four leaf clover
80. Fool someone over the age of 12 on April Fool’s Day
81. Create a digital archive of our old family photos
82. Visit the places my parents grew up
83. Develop beautiful cursive handwriting